Lest we forget

Life burns up at rate faster than meteor showers. Before we have had a chance to blink, our moment is over, like the lives of those who came before. I have never tried to make sense of this hurry to consume, could never comprehend why it is so difficult to slow down lives pace, live a little more.

A few lines from Auden's As I walked out one evening provides some solace.

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

Or maybe a couple of lines from Louis MacNeice' The Sunlight on the Garden:

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold,
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

For whatever time there remains, I keep close watch on the sand glasses. Every time a side seems to run out, I hurry to tilt it right over again.